Retro Archives

The NES Classic Edition has been one of the biggest selling items this holiday season. Various stores across the country have been sold out of the NES Classic Edition for quite some time, and some customers resorted to purchasing the NES Classic Edition online at outrageous prices. If you're still looking to grab one in time for Christmas, though, you may be in luck. According to an email sent by Best Buy, the NES Classic Edition is getting restocked in stores nationwide on December 20th. The consoles will most likely be gone quick, so be sure to get in line early at your local Best Buy!

A YouTuber named Seth Bling has created a contraption that lets you play fully-functioning Atari 2600 games in Minecraft. Surprisingly, Seth didn't use mods of any kind; his emulator was made entirely in Minecraft's Creative Mode, using assets that are available in the main game.

Although Seth's emulator can perfectly reproduce several games, including the Atari ports of Space Invaders and Donkey Kong, it does so very slowly: sixty frames of gameplay (one second's worth of gameplay on the original Atari) will take about four hours to load.

Mario Paint has been used by fans to create a number of impressive projects over the years, but this one may be one of the coolest and most massive undertakings so far. An avid Mario Painter as well as a fan of the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, Mike Matei sat down and decided to recreate the show's entire minute-long intro frame-by-frame in the SNES title. According to Matei, each frame required thirty minutes to an hour to recreate, and the entire project took about six months.

The Wii U isn't the only system getting some new games today. Demon's Crest, Capcom's 1994 Super Nintendo classic, is available exclusively on the New Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console right now. In Demon's Crest, you play as a red demon named Firebrand as he attempts to collect the six Crests necessary to summon the Crest of Infinity, granting the holder infinite power. Firebrand once had all six Crests, yet lost them in an ambush by a demon named Phalanx. It's up to you to help Firebrand reclaim these mighty Crests and stop Phalanx from becoming the ruler of the realms.

Demon's Crest is available right now for $7.99. I personally didn't know much about this game before writing this article, but after researching it a bit, I think I'll be picking it up, albeit on the Wii U. How does Demon's Crest sound to you? Will you be purchasing this one?

Another great addition is coming to the Wii U's Virtual Console in North America today. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is the eleventh entry in the much-acclaimed Fire Emblem franchise and originally launched on the DS back in 2008. Shadow Dragon is actually a remake of the first Fire Emblem and features Marth as he journeys across the land to rescue his kidnapped sister and to free the continent of Archanea from the Shadow Dragon, Medeus.

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is available right now on the Wii U Virtual Console for $9.99. Who's grabbing this?

One of my many passions in life is history—specifically, the history of video games. Not only is it fascinating to see how the industry developed over time, it also helps our understanding of why video games are what they are today. There are a handful of games that really stand out as being influential to the popularity of video games as a form of entertainment. Super Mario 64 is just one of these titles. Recently, a couple of early Super Mario 64 images were unearthed in an old patent for the Nintendo 64. These are currently the earliest known images of the game, giving us a rare glimpse into what Nintendo was planning for Peach's Castle at the time.

For some of us, the NES Classic Edition has been notoriously difficult to get hold of, selling out almost instantly whenever a retailer restocks them. Nevertheless, Nintendo promised that they will provide a "steady flow" of systems over the holiday season and into the new year. Thankfully, there seems to be some good news on the horizon from Amazon. The company just teased on Twitter that they have a couple of exciting announcements to make in the coming week regarding the NES Classic.

Many years ago, Nintendo indicated that Wii U would eventually get support for GameCube games on Virtual Console, but the system is quickly approaching the end of its life and they are nowhere to be seen. However, if the latest report from Eurogamer is to be believed, that feature will be available on Nintendo's next console, the Switch.

During Sony's PlayStation Experience Showcase, a few remasters of classic titles were announced, including PaRappa the Rapper. The remake of the rhythm game, which was initially released in 1996, will be available on the PS4 Pro with 4K support. The trailer shows the game's rap masters such as Chop Chop Master Onion, Instructor Mooselini, and Cheap Cheap the Cooking Chicken.

When The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker came to the West back in 2003, many players were less than thrilled with its cel-shaded "toon" look. Although the game received overwhelmingly positive review scores, Nintendo became increasingly more aware over time that many Western fans preferred the more "realistic" look of Ocarina of Time.

Due to this, work on a direct sequel to
Wind Waker was halted sometime after 2004 (when Wind Waker 2 was teased at GDC), and Nintendo decided to shift gears and work on the project that would become Twilight Princess. The upcoming book The Legend of Zelda: Art & Artifacts contains an interview with Nintendo graphics designer Satoru Takizawa that sheds more light on Nintendo's cancelled plans for Wind Waker 2 and how the transition into Twilight Princess took place. Hit the jump for the details!

Nintendo fans continue to make creative game projects, despite the company's recent behavior toward them. This time, a simple version of Super Smash Bros. Melee has been designed to run in your web browser. Stripping down the game to just three characters and four stages, the fan-made project turns all of the visuals into single-colored silhouettes and features remixed music from the original game. The simplistic design allows the game to run with no problems on any computer. So if you're curious, you can play the game for yourself!

Yesterday we got our first look at Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, and Sony promises to make the collection of games stand out from other remakes, calling it a "remaster plus." On the official PlayStation Blog, they explained that the new Crash Bandicoot collection is being completely rebuilt from scratch, using the original games as blueprints to get the exact geometry of the levels correct, as well as giving the games' cutscenes and character models upgraded visuals.

According to Hiroji Kiyotake, the character designer who worked on the original Metroid, Samus Aran was named after Pelé, one of the most famous soccer players in history. Kiyotake was the one who named Samus Aran in the first place, back when Metroid was in its early stages in development. Apparently, Kiyotake is a huge fan of soccer, and when he first started working on Metroid, he decided that he wanted to name the game's main character after Pelé, the "King of Football." However, Kiyotake more or less failed, as he misremembered Pelé's real name (Pelé is just a nickname), and he ended up giving Samus a completely different name by mistake.

Nintendo 64 classic The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Maskrecently launched on the Wii U Virtual Console in North America, but fans quickly noticed a pricing mistake. If you already own a game through the Wii Virtual Console, you're supposed to be able to upgrade to the Wii U version for just $2, but this option was not available for Majora's Mask. Thankfully, Nintendo recognized this right away and announced plans to fix the error. It took about a week, but Majora's Mask is now properly priced, so you can enjoy the Wii U version without paying full price again.

The NES Classic Edition has been one of the hottest selling items this holiday season. Stores across the nation have been sold out of the elusive console for a while, and some customers resorted to purchasing the NES Classic Edition online at outrageous prices. If you're still looking to get one for yourself or a loved one, you may be in luck this weekend. According to an email sent to The Palm Beach Post by Toys "R" Us, the NES Classic Edition is getting restocked in stores nationwide this Sunday. The consoles will most likely be snatched fast, so be sure to get in line early at your local Toys "R" Us!